Sunday, November 3, 2013

We kept saying we would plan a trip and the days kept rolling by... well, we finally set a date, packed the car, and waited until Brad got out of work & Norah's bed time to get on the road.

It was about a 7 1/2 hour drive & Norah slept the entire way.

Brad started the drive while I tried to get as much sleep as possible. Three hours in & at a rest stop in New Jersey we switched roles.

Norah still sound asleep!

There was a lot of construction through Jersey.

{not a shocker at all}

But, we got through it.

I was so excited to drive the New York Thruway!

It had been a long time since I had driven it.

I used to make the 4 1/2 hour drive down the Thruway every weekend to visit my mom when she was sick.

I never thought I would miss that drive, but I jumped right on the opportunity to be the one to take the tail end of the drive.

We arrived in Vermont just as the sun was rising over the mountains on Saturday morning. A sight we have missed immensely.

We spent the week with our dearest friends!

They were so sweet to open their home to us during our visit & we couldn't have thought of a better way to spend the time in Vermont.

Since Norah slept the entire trip she was rip roaring and ready to go... while Brad and I were ready to crash.

We loaded up on lots of coffee and spent the day at the park letting the kids play and allowing Norah to stretch her legs after the long ride.

On Sunday we went into Bennington for the Battle Day Parade. Norah loved watching the people march by & we enjoyed running into people from the good ol' days.

After the parade we headed up to the Bennington Monument & let the kids have some fun!

I used to love going up to the monument to relax, read, and think. It was on the checklist of must do's for the week.

CHECK!

This is the face we get when we tell Norah she can't play in the road. I couldn't resist. Even in the worst of meltdowns she's still cute! And it didn't last long... distract a toddler with something new and they forgot what they were crying about in the first place.

We went up into the monument to check out the scenery.

Norah fell in love with Jamie & his leg bounces...

"...ahhhhhhhhhh."

A beautiful sight to see!!

And then we went back to Jamie & Jen's to vedge/doze off while the kids watched TV. A wonderful way to start off our trip to our old home state.